Movies, TV shows, books, comics, graphic novels, and all other manner of content delivery seek to tell a story. Sometimes the story is uplifting, sometimes it is fun, sometimes it is just a train wreck you can’t look away from until it is ended. In any case, the story is what is most important about the experience, not the medium through which the story is carried.

I say this because I have friends who don’t watch any movies that aren’t in color. I have other friends who only watch films if they are in 4K HD. I have others who refuse to watch anything made prior to a specific year in their living memory. This is a philosophy of entertainment appreciation I’ve never understood. If a story is good, it’s worth enjoying in whatever medium you can get it.

For a long while, even into my adult life, I’d heard of certain movies, especially classics, that I had avoided. These were the kinds of movies the film historians would talk about on AMC, comparing some new classic with something truly classic. I wouldn’t pay much attention. I’ve never been good at following history like some. It wasn’t because I was avoiding the movies for any particular reason, I had just grown up where the words “classic movie” had come to mean long and boring. Maybe I’ll get into that later. But then I met my wife, and together we found our respective love for bad 80s sci-fi flicks (Arena, Robot Jox to name only a couple). This, in turn, led us to either share older films one of us loved with the other, or we journey through the adventure of a new story together.

For instance, my wife shared with me Sunset Boulevard. I’d heard of it. I’d seen clips of it. I knew of its importance as a movie in cinema history. I’d never seen it. With her insistence, I finally did and I must say, while it is no masterpiece, it is an amazing piece of film that anyone who calls themselves a film buff should definitely watch. The black and white film actually lends a charm to a story that would be at home in the modern era. 

One of the things I like about this film is, while it can never be called timeless, and probably could never be modernized since it was such a product of the era in which it was made, it was very modern in tone and theme. The main character is unlikable in the beginning, and by the end we have grown with him, sharing his ambition and his regrets. The female lead, who is a sympathetic character throughout, shows us what it was like to be famous, wealthy, and desired, only to have it all stripped away by the marching of time and advances in technology. 

These are all things we can understand as we see more and more jobs get automated, either through software or hardware or artificial intelligence. We see whole industries become outdated as the world that needed them has moved on and taken the need for their products with them. We can understand that what once was great can quickly become an antique, obsolete, and decrepit through no fault of its own. It just happens as the world moves on.

It is this ability to reflect back on things of the past and make better decisions for the future that makes humanity capable of so much, and our failure to do it that makes us terrifying creatures destroying things for no better reason than carelessness.

Movies like Sunset Boulevard are the kind that everyone should see, if for no better reason than that it is a good story about a time in the world where things are constantly in flux whether we want them to be or not. Simply put, no matter the medium, a story is always a story, and a powerful story will always be powerful for the right audience when it is experienced. If you’re ready for the story to affect you, explore it, whether it’s in 4K HD or black and white standard definition.